I’ve observed in successful scientists, in myself and in highly productive authors, I’m talking about the type of authors who have consistently produced high quality books for years. Anyone can become more creative by making sure they possess the following three traits.

1. A master of knowledge, in general the more knowledge the better. It is easier to be creative, to invent and to build processes around subjects we have a lot of knowledge in, knowledge; whether gained by experience or by formal education can be a tremendous boost to human creativity. This mastery of knowledge makes humans unique, the ability to store and re-use knowledge gives us the unique ability to be creative and I belive is a clue as to the meaning of human life
2. Humility is often in opposition to the mastery of knowledge in most people and therefore is difficult to maintain. Those who lack humility often allow their intelligence to take them into a very pessimistic place. They assume they know more than they do and overtime this is a major creativity destroyer. I’ve seen this in action with dozens of brilliant scientists and academics.       Our lack of humility makes our great intelligence almost useless, this is seen in refusing to collaborate and making bad assumptions about what we think we know.
1. An optimistic mindset is seen in trying new things and in acknowledging we don’t know everything. Learning can happen by experience faster and often more thoroughly then by theorizing. Optimism creates the environment for the mastery of more learning, more knowledge and therefore more creativity.

If you want to be more creative or make the teams you manage more creative start first with these three traits. Here is a great example of scientist and engineer creativity and innovation at Corning Inc.

What other traits have you observed in highly creative people?